A new title from James S. A. Corey is one of the best new sci-fi books of August 2024

Whether it’s black orbs swallowing people in downtown Seoul, murder on Mars or malevolent pigs, August…

Should we put a frozen backup of Earth’s life on the moon?

Shackleton crater, at the moon’s south pole, has areas of permanent shadow LROC/ShadowCam/NASA/KARI/ASU A backup of…

First stars: The search for the stars that changed the history of the universe

akinbostanci/Getty Images As turning points in cosmic history go, the birth of the first stars is…

The sun could capture rogue planets from 3.8 light years away

Artistic illustration of a rogue planet MasPix/Alamy The sun’s gravitational pull may be able to capture…

NASA CADRE moon rovers test autonomous exploration of lunar surface

Inside a cleanroom at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, three moon rovers undergo final…

SpaceX prepares for Starship flight with first ‘chopstick’ landing

A test of the Super Heavy Booster for Starship’s fifth test flight SpaceX SpaceX is making…

Wafer-thin light sail could help us reach another star sooner

A mission to the sun’s closest neighbouring star, Alpha Centauri, could be made faster thanks to…

Dark matter may solve the mystery of how colossal black holes merge

How do enormous black holes merge? Jurik Peter/Shutterstock Supermassive black holes sometimes merge, but for decades,…

Mars rover found a rock with possible signs of ancient life

Features like the leopard spots in the centre of this image could be signs of ancient…

What happens at a black hole’s edge? It depends on your perspective

In a recent column, I wrote about black holes. A curious reader sent in a letter…